Accredited publishers, Accredited Online Distance Learning or going rogue?

[Guest thsaj]

Hello,

 

Disclaimer: I have not homeschooled in 4 years, and now my ds wants me to homeschool him for HIGHSCHOOL! I'm trying to make sense of all my choices and I'm feeling a little uneasy. As soon as I get some subjects covered, seems like another ??? pops up. Too many choices ???

 

I'm weighing the pro's & con's of using an accredited online distance academy and going independant or more of an eclectic style.

 

How much importance do Colleges put on a homeschooled graduate that graduated from an accredited distance learning school vs. pulling the curriculum from various publishers for a more well rounded education that is more curtailed to the learning style and interest of the student.

 

My thinking is that there are publishers that have used their expertise to write that subject matter for use as curriculum that my student could glean from and thus learn deeper and have a better mastery over it because of it (their expertise). But if I go with a somewhat canned curriculum just because it has the "AdvancED" accredation so Colleges might take his High School (homeschool) diploma more seriously then aren't I giving him less of an education just to make the diploma "look" more real? Basically I'm wondering how important is the provider of the highschool education as far as Colleges are concerned regarding homeschool grads.

Thanks for any insight,

Heather

[StartingOver]

I went my own way with my older children while they were in highschool. Two are in college now. We had no problems getting them in. Having said that we followed TWTM rigorously, along with some community college classes for dual credit in their senior years.

[Ellie]

Hello,

 

Disclaimer: I have not homeschooled in 4 years, and now my ds wants me to homeschool him for HIGHSCHOOL! I'm trying to make sense of all my choices and I'm feeling a little uneasy. As soon as I get some subjects covered, seems like another ??? pops up. Too many choices ???

 

I'm weighing the pro's & con's of using an accredited online distance academy and going independant or more of an eclectic style.

 

How much importance do Colleges put on a homeschooled graduate that graduated from an accredited distance learning school vs. pulling the curriculum from various publishers for a more well rounded education that is more curtailed to the learning style and interest of the student.

 

My thinking is that there are publishers that have used their expertise to write that subject matter for use as curriculum that my student could glean from and thus learn deeper and have a better mastery over it because of it (their expertise). But if I go with a somewhat canned curriculum just because it has the "AdvancED" accredation so Colleges might take his High School (homeschool) diploma more seriously then aren't I giving him less of an education just to make the diploma "look" more real? Basically I'm wondering how important is the provider of the highschool education as far as Colleges are concerned regarding homeschool grads.

Thanks for any insight,

Heather

Publishers are never accredited. Only schools are. For example, ABeka Book is not accredited; ABeka Academy is, and if you do Program 1, your dc will be issued a diploma from an accredited school, Abeka Academy. ACE is not accredited; Lighthouse Christian Academy, which is owned and administered by ACE, is.

 

So if you go with a "canned curriculum," you're not necessarily going to get accredition. You can use all ABeka yourself, but unless you've enrolled your dc in ABeka Academy, there is no accreditation.

 

FYI, most--in fact, the vast majority--of homeschoolers don't bother with enrolling their dc in any sort of accredited school, distance or otherwise (sometimes local schools will enroll homeschooled children). They issue their own diplomas and generate their own transcripts. And for the most part, colleges don't know which publisher/other materials your grad used; some colleges ask for course descriptions and bibliographies, but most do not.